by Melinda Brasher

Pages

Thursday, December 28, 2017

This book has a lot
of fascinating information about the complex lives, habits, and
survival strategies of trees. The author makes very good arguments
that trees learn and feel, that they communicate with and help each
other—attributes that make them seem a lot more like animals than
I'd ever suspected.

It's very detailed
(for a layperson), and sometimes repetitive, which makes the pacing
quite slow—much like the pacing of trees, I suppose. That's not to
say it's dull. Just take it in slowly. The structure of the book
makes this easy, presenting the information in short essay-like
chapters that can be read alone.

It's very heavy on
the type of trees that grow in the author's forest--so it's a little
narrow--but he's an expert THERE, and doesn't pretend to be
otherwise.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

I made traditional Czech Christmas dinner today (Czechs do Christmas on Dec 24). Okay...so it wasn't totally traditional, since I didn't keep a carp in my bathtub for a couple of days and then fry it up myself. But we did have fish and Czech-style potato salad. My family thought the potato salad (with peas and carrots) would be weird, but they all really liked it. The most traditional soup as an appetizer on Christmas is fish soup, but quite a few of my friends do mushroom soup instead. Maybe the people in the region where I lived are particularly good mushroom hunters. Anyway, I made mushroom soup with mushrooms I picked and dried myself in the Czech Republic.Then we rang a bell and turned to the Christmas tree to see what Ježíšek (baby Jesus) had brought us.It all reminded me of a lovely Christmas I spent with a dear friend in the Czech Republic.

They also did audio versions of the stories, and I thought the reader did a really good job with mine. The voices are awesome. If you want to listen to the story, you can get access to the current issue for $5 through the Timeless Tales website.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Here are some punishments for bad little boys and girls in 1848. Notice how fighting and quarreling earn you 5 lashes. The heinous offense of boys and girls playing together earns 4. But the worst thing...the crime that gets you 10 lashes...is...gasp...playing cards. Oh, the horror.

A stove like my dad remembers (he also remembers the chairs above):

The Tubac Presidio is an awesome place with all sorts of interesting history and juicy stories. See my next couple of posts.

Tubac is south of Tucson, just a few miles north of the border to Mexico. The Presidio is a State Park, and the modest entrance fee is well worth it. http://www.tubacpp.com/

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Here are some pictures from my little walk around the Cactus Forest of Sahuaro National Park East (Rincon District). There were so many types of cactus!

A giant chainfruit cholla, with prickly pear on the side and a youngish sahuaro hiding in the back to the right.

A barrel cactus with lots of fruit next to a palo verde tree with an old saguaro in the background

Funny Story...

I was impressed by the diversity, but I've lived in Arizona most of my life. The car in front of us on the scenic loop was more than impressed. More like flabbergasted.

We came upon them when they were stopped, taking pictures madly from their windows. Then they took off, driving at a breakneck speed of about 3 miles per hour. Then they stopped again. We figured they had to have seen some animal, but no...just cactus. We weren't too annoyed, since their license plate said Florida and we felt proud to show off our state. They finally got to a place wide enough for us to pass and we did.

About 2 miles in, we came to the Mica View trailhead/picnic ground. We took a nice little stroll, slowly admiring the cactus, inspecting plants, pondering different types of cholla and prickly pear, excitedly discovering blooming Christmas cactus, which we rarely see. Then I took off on a somewhat faster walk around a loop trail. Almost an hour an a half later I got back. Florida was just arriving!

They took an hour and a half to drive two miles! Awesome! Take all the time you want, non-Arizonans. Our cactus is super cool.

A closer look at the chainfruit cholla

Some sort of purple cholla. Buckhorn that's turned purple because of drought?

Thursday, November 23, 2017

I enjoyed this, especially as I read it in the days leading up to Halloween.

The writing is very good, though a bit descriptive at times for my
personal tastes. The characters are interesting. The plot is
creepy. The ending is exciting, and during that excitements it's
hard to guess exactly what is real and what is not—in a good way.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

The other day I was hiking at Skyline Regional Park, a desert area on the edge of Phoenix, Arizona. I was on a little summit trail when I got to a really rocky section and thought, "This would be a good place for
rattlesnakes." I looked down and...voila!

The end of its tail was hidden in the
coils and it looked a LOT lighter than most rattlesnakes I've seen, without the common diamond pattern, but its head appeared to be the right shape. It was coiled and calm, so I went ahead and hung close enough to get some nice pictures (though not TOO close--I have a good zoom).

The most common rattlesnake people see around here is the western diamondback, but I didn't think that's what it was. When I got home, I did some internet research. I found a description of a speckled rattlesnake that
claims that they come in different colors, depending on the
predominant color of the rock in the area. Isn't that amazing? It
said that the speckled rattlesnakes on both South Mountain and in the
White Tanks (and probably the contiguous Skyline Park, where I was)
tend to have white-gray coloring to match the rock there. Nature is amazing.

Here's a fascinating article about the different colors in different communities:

Friday, November 17, 2017

Just a few views from the easy and beautiful Rim Lakes Vista Trail along the Mogollon Rim.

Caveat: if you're particularly afraid of heights, you might want to upgrade "easy" to "moderate" or just stay away from the edge.

Trail #622

Stone bird?

Nice place to sit?

The trail goes for over 4 miles, but not all of it is right along the Rim. If you're just looking for a nice stroll, park at one of the viewpoints along Forest Road 300 on the way to Woods Canyon Lake. Get out and walk to the next viewpoint or however far you want. Parts of the trail are paved near the Military Sinkhole Vista and the Woods Canyon Lake Vista, so it's quite accessible. You'll also find benches with nice views.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

This great trail leads from a trailhead a couple of miles out of the village of Christopher Creek. The trailhead is popular with campers, but once I got a few minutes down the trail, I hardly saw anyone. And this was one of the first cool weekends of the season, a beautiful mid-October day of blue skies.

The trail's relatively flat at first, and goes through what looks like former fire damage. Take the fork to See Spring. The trail follows the creek, making it relatively lush, and very relaxing for a nice creek-side picnic. Though not as impressive of Horton Spring, the source of the creek is still very cool, just flowing out of the hill. You can walk around on the rocks above the spring and hear the water beneath you, but you can't see it anywhere. Very cool.

On the fork to See Spring

Return to the fork and continue straight at the cliffy hills above you. It soon gets steep as it climbs up the to the top of the Rim, but the trail is good and it's never very steep. There aren't great views off the Rim, like the views you get from the Rim Trail or such, but it's still very nice.

Look for rock cairns like these if you lose the trail.

I had it easy. My Dad did the shuttle run, dropping me off at the bottom and then driving the longer-than-expected drive up to the top, so I only did the trip one way (about 4 miles). If you do it round trip, and want to dawdle like I did, plan plenty of time.

A new friend on the trail

I personally wouldn't recommend it in full summer, but if you love sun and don't mind heat and have plenty of water, you might like it. I fully recommend going in autumn when the leaves are turning.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

I was surprised to find so much water and greenery here, on the Horton Creek Trail near Kohl's Ranch (near Payson) Arizona.

The trail's a popular and mostly easy 4 miles one way to the "spring" where the water gushes out of the rock, having filtered down from the Mogollon Rim, as I understand it. It's pretty cool.

Much of the trail is away from this beautiful creek, but there are plenty of unofficial trails down near the water and cool places to duck down and play in the tiny falls or explore the banks on your own. You can also find cool stone campsites and other treats.

To get to the trailhead, drive on Highway 260 between Payson and Heber, Arizona. When you get to Kohl's Ranch, take the turnoff to the north. The sign says something about Tonto Creek. Drive about a mile or so to the Derrick Trailhead, where you can park. There's also an outhouse and picnic tables there, if you just want to stop for lunch. The trail leaves from just up the road at the Upper Tonto Creek Campground (walk through the campground to find the trailhead).

This trail can probably be fairly hot in the summer, but in mid October when I went, it was perfect. There were also a few trees turning colors.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

I’m not sure the
premise and drastic transformation here are strictly realistic, but I
loved them. The characters are interesting and likable but not
perfect. (though I kept thinking they were a couple of years older
than they were). The writing is effortless. The pacing is very
good. Overall, a very enjoyable book about changing one’s life for
the better.

More accurate rating: 4.5

I've never read anything else by Gordon Korman, but it looks like he has a great many books to choose from. I think I'll dip into another sometime soon.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Great book! I loved these amazing stories of cross-species friendships. I was particularly touched by the predator-prey friendships. Amazing. Beautiful pictures, too. Each story is quite short, so it's a book even busy people will love.

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Full title: Get Well Soon; History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

This fascinating account
of various plagues through history features plenty of heroes to
counter the darkness. Jennifer Wright has a conversational style
with plenty of clever humor that somehow doesn’t make light of the
real suffering and death caused by these diseases. I found it very
entertaining and educational, and more of a page-turner than the
novel I was reading concurrently.

Okay, so it does get a
little preachy in places, but I agree with the lessons we can learn
from history.

Some of the stuff the
author wrote about is so scary, especially about the American morale
laws in WWI that pretty much threw away any semblance of free speech,
punished journalists with 20 years of jail time for telling the
truth, and inadvertently exacerbated the Spanish influenza. It made
me wonder about the truth of it and other details in the book,
despite the good footnotes. My preliminary search of the internet
has yielded surprisingly little detail of the terrifying
ramifications of the Espionage and Sedition acts of 1917 and 1918 or
their connection with the spread of the Spanish influenza by means of
blatant, criminal denial. Considering that the internet is full of
passionate details about the terrifying ramifications of things like
vaccines and celebrities’ divorces and leaving onions in your
fridge overnight, this internet silence is extremely disturbing. If
this book’s allegations are true, then these laws and the
subsequent behavior of the people, the press, and the justice
department are just as scary as the bubonic plague or the Spanish
influenza itself.

Anyway, a very, very
interesting book. Now I need to read Jennifer Wright’s other book,
“It Ended Badly,” about famous historical break-ups. She brings
history to life and delivers it in small chunks that anyone would
have time for.

Highly recommended (though
perhaps not for hypochondriacs or the squeamish).

Friday, August 18, 2017

I really enjoyed this
book. It's not exactly a page-turner, and some of the essays have a
little too much detail for my personal taste, but the writing is good
and the essay format makes it easy to read in short segments and
really digest all the information.

I love the mix of science
and observation and history and philosophy, all wrapped up in the
author's personal experiences and reactions. A perfect combination.

Sometimes I (in my own
weakness) don't enjoy nature writing because it's like, “This is
how I wrestled a bear in the wilderness,” and “A whale jumped
over our boat” and “I spent two weeks living with wild wolves,
and if you've never done that, you're really missing out.” It can
make my own more humble experiences with nature and wildlife feel
shallow and inadequate. But the thing is, I think all encounters
with wildlife are amazing, and so does Bill Sherwonit. He spends
just as much time talking about the wonders of song birds and frogs
and squirrels as he does about moose and bears and wolverines. And
he makes those song birds interesting. It's very refreshing.

I believe the book will
inspire people who may never have a chance to see a bear or a whale
or spend two weeks with wild wolves, but who can learn to really
observe the birds in their backyard or their city park and commune
with nature through them.

Friday, August 11, 2017

I was pondering the best movies I've seen so far this year, and I realized that they all have a few things in common. See if you can figure it out:

Bridge of Spies

Hidden Figures

The Zookeeper's Wife

A United Kingdom

Things I found in common:
-All take place in the recent past
-All are based on true stories
-All feature some aspect of politics
-All feature some sort of prejudice/segregation and the fighting of it
AND...
-All are based on books.

Yay for books!

Bridge of Spies is based partly on Strangers on a Bridge by James Donovan

Hidden Figures is based on Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

The Zookeeper's Wife is based on The Zookeeper's Wife; A War Story by Diane Ackerman

A United Kingdom is based on Colour Bar; The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation by Susan Williams

About Me

I am first and foremost a writer. My true love is fiction, but I also write articles and personal essays, mostly based on my number two passion: travel. In order to support my travel habits, I have taught English as a Second Language in places like Mexico, Poland, the Czech Republic, and exotic Arizona.

Nanowrimo is an international organization that motivates people to write an entire novel (rough draft) in one month. Get 50,000 words down, and you "win." If deadlines help you write, participate this November. nanowrimo.org